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BARBARA L. FREDRICKSENIn New Port Richey, pastels, paintings and jewelry are yours for a price.
Art lovers in the Tampa Bay area and many beyond are familiar with Nicholas Sacripante's ethereal, award-winning pastels, many of them sizable nude renderings of a female model he simply identifies as "Frances."
"I've been in juried shows at Gasparilla (Arts Festival), Mainsail (Art Festival) and Tarpon Springs (Arts and Crafts Festival)," Sacripante said.
He won honors at the For the Love of Art outdoor show in his hometown of New Port Richey and has been selected to be in shows by the Degas Pastel Society and the Alabama Pastel Society.
Sacripante studied art at Columbia University School of Visual Arts in his native state, New York, and is a member of the highly selective Pastel Society of America. One of his pieces was recently accepted for publication in International Pastel Magazine.
"I have been drawing since I was a kid," he said. "I do portraits and figures."
Four of Sacripante's works are among the 26 paintings in the Greater New Port Richey Main Street and Progress Energy Art Gallery exhibit, which continues through April 29.
Others in the show are watercolorist/oil painter Sandy Butterfield and jewelry designers Liz Dono and Susan Duda Schultz.
Ms. Butterfield has 22 pieces in the exhibit, many of them of French villages and English countrysides that are painted in a style reminiscent of American artist Thomas Kinkade.
Ms. Butterfield admires Kinkade's marketing skills, but her favorite painter is Vincent Van Gogh.
Her husband, Chris, is from England and the Butterfields have spent lots of time both in England and on the continent.
"Chris takes a lot of pictures," Ms. Butterfield said. "I use those, but a lot of it - and I'm sure this is also true of Nick (Sacripante) - is my imagination."
The cottages and landscapes are bright with color and life. Some are done with pallette knife.
"I lay on a lot of paint there," she said, pointing to an intricate splash of color in one cottage scene, a technique that marks many of the works by Van Gogh.
Ms. Butterfield's subject matter ranges far and wide: Three Orthodox rabbis adapted from three separate photographs she once saw are shown standing together in the glow of a golden light like old friends; a dark woman done in pastels - "a complete figment of my imagination," Ms. Butterfield says - has an exotic, Caribbean look; a smiling, obviously happy couple are her son and his new bride.
Invitations to exhibit at the Progress Energy Gallery are made only to those chosen for gallery membership by art juror Liz Dono. The exhibits usually include three or four artists and include a "meet-the-artist" reception.
Most of the artwork is for sale. Sacripante's framed nudes are $1,000 each; Ms. Butterfield's works range from $175 to $800. Prices were not available for the jewelry.
At a glanceWHAT: Art exhibit
WHERE: Greater New Port Richey Main Street and Progress Energy Art Gallery, 6231 Grand Blvd.
WHEN: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays through April 29. Wine and cheese reception for artists from 5 to 8 p.m. today
ADMISSION: free